The Royal Bengal Tiger is the apex predator and top of food chain in Indian Jungles and also top on the list of subjects to be clicked for any wildlife photographer worth his salt. I am not very different, and though I have clicked the most handsome of the wild cats many times each experience is a unique one. Every time I visit a Tiger park I go through excitement as well as depression simultaneously. Excitement as I look forward to click the king of Indian Jungles, and depression as everybody around me is carrying lenses long enough to be used to click pictures of Chandra Yaan on its way to mars, while I join with my puny 300 mm lens. Anyways this post is not about photography gear but about my experience of watching Wagdoh male, arguably the largest male tiger in India, ruling the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in Maharashtra.
This particular trip to Tadoba was full of sightings of Telia Tiger cubs, and we saw them in every safari we took. In one of the safaris the jeep in front of us stopped suddenly and the driver pointed to the 2 year old female cub blissfully playing with a stick next to some bushes.
We clicked her at a short distance while she oblivious to the attention she was getting continued with her innocent play. Then we heard some grunts form the bushes behind her and the cub vanished behind them, probably her mother was hiding in the bushes and called her back. Next visit we saw the mother and cubs again from a short distance and the cub entered the waters to cool down in the April heat while the mother lurked from the bushes behind her.
All this while I was longing to see the ruler of this kingdom, the Wagdoh male who is considered the largest male tiger in India. Though I wonder who would have dared to go and measure his size or of other tigers to compare them ? When I enquired with Mangesh our guide for all the safaris, if we will get a chance to see the Wagdhoh male he simply said, “Sir, he is the king of this jungle he holds durbar only once in a week, so you can see him only if he wants you to see him”. On further query we learned that the elusive king was last seen almost 8 days ago, so we had a good chance to see him.
This gave some hope to us that we stand a chance to see his Royal highness on one of his weekly Diwan – E- Aam, when the emperor gives a darshan to the common man. It seems lady luck was on our side and we were watching a group of Gaurs leisurely munching on greens when we heard some noise in the dense growth on our left side. Two safari elephants emerged from them and one of the photographers sitting on top of the elephant asked us to look in the other direction. These guys on elephants were silently following the Wagdoh Male and were pointing fingers towards some bushes on our right side barely a few meters away from us.
I tried very hard to look in the bushes to see him but could only see a dense wall of green and yellow leaves. There is an old saying in jungle if you see the tiger once; it means the tiger has seen you a 100 times.
While I was trying to figure out the pattern in the bushes, the chirping of the birds became louder, in a s split second the Gaurs were gone, the langurs on the bushes have climbed higher and some of them were visibly looking restless. As if on a clue suddenly everything went silent, the langurs were all looking in one direction the birds stopped chirping and even the giant elephants stopped breaking branches around them for munching and looked toward the same bush.
The animals around us could sense the presence of the king, even though he was invisible. I looked towards Mangesh our highly skilled guide and he too was totally silent, cautiously gazing towards a dense Lantana bush.
And then the magic happened, the lantana bushes parted way as if Moses was commanding them to make way for the emperor just like he asked the red sea to part. As the bushes split, without making a sound a huge tiger head with an orange mane like you normally associate with Lions, emerged from the bushes and fixed his gaze towards us. I could hear my heart go dhak dhak without Madhuri Dixit being around, rest of me froze and forgot to pick my camera to click. Leisurely the tiger walked out of the bushes, showing little interest in existence of us lesser mortals who were petrified by his mere presence. As the tiger moved the wind too gave a sigh of relief & started blowing again and reached us. Only now we realized how large this tiger is. While we were looking at him the female tiger emerged behind him and quickly crossed in front of us to vanish in the bushes. Almost double the size of the female who passed next to him, the was all muscles designed to kill with a single stroke. I thanked my stars that humans are not the natural food of tigers and slowly composed myself to get my camera ready trying not to make a single sound, lest I may disturb the stroll of his Royal Highness.
As I was picking my camera, he decided to show us who is the boss and settled on his hind legs, raised his head and roared. And what a roar it was, as if a collision of clouds had happened in heavens that shook the earth, and made my palms sweat. Before the roar subsided after echoing a few times, he was already moving away from us.
Post roar it took some time to compose ourselves, by this time only a part of him was coming into frame. I have missed the moment to click the largest male tiger in India while he looked straight towards me. So to make up for the most I clicked my camera till he was visible. But in most of the pictures he is not looking into the camera and is moving away from us.
I may have missed clicking him, but the sight of parting of the lantana to reveal his huge head, muscular shoulders and then the rest of him slithering out slowly and that gaze of contempt towards us followed by thunderous roar is something I will remember for a very long time to come.
Long live dear Wagdoh Tiger and may your tribe increase :) :)
About Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve: Is a Project Tiger, National park in Maharashtra. Nearest airport is Nagpur about 2 hours away and the nearest railway station is Chandrapur. There are lots of options to choose for staying for all budgets. But you need to book in advance as per the forest department rules for the safaris.
Best time to visit for tiger sightings is March to May when the Tadoba is dry and you can see tigers next to watering holes. Best weather is during October to February. The park is closed during Monsoons for visitors.
Stunning pictures with great post :)
Thanks Pamela
Wow….heart pounding…what a read it was! You were lucky to have darshan of the King-live! You still could hold the camera tight, captured it into your frame by troubling your heart to beat loud and presented us the nice photographs.
I thoroughly enjoyed and liked it. Thanks for sharing, Prasad!
Hi Anupam: This darshan of the Wagdoh male will be cherished for a long time to come… :) Glad that you liked the post… thanks
Really frightning when you look at the huge Waghdoh male tiger.Kudos to Prasad for cicking such pictures which has never come out before.I am a wild life lover since my childhood and have been to little known forests and sanctuaries and for most of the times I have seen hardly anything,but the feeling of the jungle -especially the eerie silence only the murmur of the leaves and the smell of the trees all around is the sensation which is worth visiting any jungle maybe very far off.Maybe if I had been in place of Prasad I would never had the strength to take this magnificent pics.
Thanks Arnab for your kind words…
As I read this mesmerizing tale of the magnificent tiger ‘Waghdoh’ that ever lived and admired by most, I came to the realisation of an epic epoch of the Emperor of Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve has come to an end. I regret his “Highness’s” departure. Like the “Lady of Lake” “Queen of Ranthambore” The Great Machli, he shall be in our memory for the time immemorial.
Waghdoh – Means a male tiger in Gujarati. And Waghan means a tigress. Wagh is a Gujarati term used for the tiger.
Yes, I guess Wagh is a Gujarati / Marathi for Bagh which means Tiger . Thanks
Wagh is also used in Marathi language for male tiger. Waghin is his female counterpart.
And yes, sight of waghdoh male is priceless experience. I am one of the privileged who have multiple tiger and leopard sightings in tadoba.
Lucky you :) as I know a few folks who have been to places like Ranthambore, Corbette etc more than 10 times and yet to see a tiger… :)
Yeah, I would have to agree on this. We have even been lucky to sight two male tigers, on their hind legs, fighting each other for territory. It has been by far our best sighting.
I had Goosebumps reading the narration. I bet it is exhilarating and scary at the same time to watch this magnificent animal. Thank you Mr. Prasad, for this great article and superb pictures. What camera do you use (if its not a trade secret :) . I just hope that we (our Government and people alike) can save these animals from extinction.
Dear Ram: Readers like you make my day, thanks for your appreciation. I have used a Nikon D7000 camera with a 55-300 mm VR lens, handheld for clicking these pictures. So no secret :)
good trips make some good traveler .Attractive sights please onlookers and when they narrate them we get enlightened.Pictures supplement the pleasure ,thank you
Thanks Muraleedharan… glad that you liked the post..
Good Post..Thanks for sharing your experience.
Thanks Uday….
GREAT SHOOT . KEEP GOING .
Thanks Sachin…
A very good narration along with pictures of great quality. The best was your description of shooting the tiger from a close distance.
Thanks Uday, I am glad you liked the same…
great pictures—and good narration—- keep it up and .
A very gripping narrative. You are a very lucky guy. I have been to Bandipur, Nagerhole, Parambikulam,Kaziranga and Kanha(7), but had to make do with pug marks only. At Nagerhole the beast had walked all along the jeep track for more than a KM, minutes before we hit the track. But no DARSHAN. i REALLY ENVY YOUR LUCK.
Thanks Vinay,
Thanks Rajesh Jee you are right, watching the king of jungle is a matter of great luck, I do consider myself very fortunate… :)
Amazing…thrilling experience…..and I congratulate you on this occasion ,having photographed the strongest male tiger in the country…from a very close proximity…and the write up and photographs given are inspiring…
especially to youngsters who are interested in the ENVIRONMENT and ECOSYSTEMS …
Expecting more of this kind from you….
All the best..
Dr.K.R.SABU
Chennai
Thanks Mr. Sabu… if my writing and pictures can inspire the younger ones nothing could be better than that.
hi nice pics
hi
very interesting post and beautiful shots… thanks for sharing
If I remember correctly you have some record in blogging… perhaps among top 10 in India.. pls confirm
Dear SS sir thanks for your appreciation. With good wishes of people like you desi Traveler is now widely read. But I am just happy to be a Ghumakkar, one of the first places where I wrote besides my blog :)
What to say ?
Tiger Tiger Burning Bright ….
Timing is the essence, correct time at the correct place Blessed are thou.
thanks Balaji…
Wow . What a interesting blog with captivating pictures. Though all pictures are beautiful but I liked the first one most.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful Blog with us.
Thanks Naresh, the first one is the daughter of the Wagdoh Tiger
Wow!!
I can imagine all that ruckus those birds created and the silence that followed when royalty walked in.
Oh my! and you heard him roar with all his might? Ooh! just reading about it and seeing that picture gave me goosebumps, I swear.
Nice post, DesiTraveler. Superb shots too. :)
Thanks DNambiar it was an a roar that I will remember for long…
Its always pleasure to read your articles !
As usual beautiful post & awesome pics !
Thanks Mahesh…. :)
Prasad – An alert made me look at the traffic and it seems some crazy thing happened on Dec 4 and Dec 5 and our traffic was at all time super-high (don’t ask me more). So I came back to see what impact did it have on the stories on Dec 3 and if you notice, this one has close to 10K shares. that is more than crazy, thought would let you know.
Yet to read the story and make a meaningful comment. :-)
Wow, that is really Cool! I guess tigers are favorite subject of not just photographers but also readers :)
Hi Prasad!
What a story… and what writing skills. There is no denying that it must have been an awesome experience but to be able to it in words which makes it come alive for the reader…. Outstanding!
Thanks a lot Naturebuff…yes the experience of watching a huge tiger from close range is great :)
WoW.
I first heard about Tadoba via a Ghumakkar contact, Ranjit, who moved to Tadoba for work, after spending time at Corbet.
https://www.ghumakkar.com/tadoba-national-park-a-heaven-for-wildlife-lover/
After that Tadoba did surface a bit here and there but not much. I have been wanting to read this story, after our short email exchanged, but could do it only today. Wow. Simply Wow. I didn’t even know that Wagdoh is the largest Tiger around. I am almost feeling proud to have known and read someone who has seen it himself :-)
Thank you Prasad.
Thanks Nandan.
But yes Tadoba is a very unique habitat with lakes, dense forest plus grasslands in parts that are perfect for both the prey and the predator, and the Wagdoh male is absolute delight to watch. :)
If you would have to guess just how big he actually is, what would you say regarding his height, length and weight? By the way that must have been a really awesome feeling seeing that gracefull giant in action
Tough to say in numbers but he sure was 15-20 % larger than the other fully grown male tigers that I have seen in Bandipur, and Corbett earlier.
Wow very impressiv. Which males have you seen over there?
In Bandipur I saw Prince or Scarface Tiger of Bandipur , I am not sure of the name of the male tiger in Corbett as it was about 7-8 years ago.
and if you would have to guess the weight, just have a try?
Ahh!!! Here I was spell bound by the mighty Tiger unable to click one good picture and you expect me to remember weight, height etc… :)
No i don’t expect you to remember them i only think that you could guess them. And your pictures are very good.
:) Thanks, I have no idea but some people have mentioned he is around 300 KG , and most tigers peak at 250 KG, but these are just guesstimates, I don’t think he has ever been weighed actually :)
Yes he has never been weighed. Thanks a lot for your information and the great story.Congrats for your incredible sighting :)
Thanks, a lot…hope to see him again in the next trip to Tadoba this summer…
Thanks a lot…hope to see him again in the next trip to Tadoba this summer…
Good luck on that.
Although I am a couple of years late in this discussion, and there is no denying the fact that Wagdoh is huge, I have seen bigger Tigers in the sub-himalayan foothills. There was a tiger called Khali (Named after the wrestler) in Corbett who was immense. This was in 2011 when Wagdoh ruled the Tadoba grasslands. Similarly, there was an unnamed tiger in the Dhikala area who was as big as a baby bison. So, yes, I admit that spotting Wagdoh is always special, but he’s not really the biggest male Tiger in India. And if you are heading to Tadoba now, he’s in the buffer zone. :)
Thoroughly impressed with the writeup. You gave me a virtual experience of tiger sighting.
Very nice blog you have shared I agree this is nice place for tiger sighting but I think if You will visit tadoba nationl park in maharashtra then their great chances to see tiger from close and
It is great to know that the largest population of Bengal Tigers are found in India. its a very great and wild creature, but their population is decreasing day by day.we should take more steps to save them.
Such an Amazing information you have shared!!!
Liked to read more…
If you want to book Resort near Tadoba National Park
go for Tiger Heaven Resort
http://tigersheavenresort.co.in
you r an amazing writer, also u were almost able to describe the mightiness of the waghdod male in worlds . keep it up
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